October 8, 2006 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN]
“We talk of telling the world [about the gospel], but sometimes we can't even summon the enthusiasm to tell the person sitting next to us on the plane,” said Gary Krause, Adventist Mission director for the Seventh-day Adventist world church, illustrating what he sees as a need for Adventists to embrace the church's Tell the World initiative as “a personal philosophy of witnessing,” not just an evangelism framework.
Delivered during a morning Annual Council session, Krause's comments came as part of the first Tell the World report since the initiative's adoption by the Adventist church during last year's General Conference session. As a vision approach to the mission of the church, Tell the World hinges upon the personal involvement and financial support of church members, two factors that figured chiefly in today's report.
Pastor Mark Finley, general vice president of the world church, said that Tell the World's goal to provide an opportunity for every person to hear and know the gospel over the next five years is both “the most ambitious vision the church has ever set forth” and a “guiding principle” for what he called the “mission-driven church.”
Another world church vice president, Pastor Mike Ryan, noted the sense of urgency and willingness to sacrifice that marked and contributed to the success of the missionary and evangelistic endeavors of early Adventists. Pastor Lowell Cooper, also a world church vice president, suggested that “Tell the World churches” ought prayerfully to reflect an equal level of involvement and commitment to spreading the gospel.
“Tell the World envisions a church of praying members filled with the Holy Spirit and nurtured by God's Word, with a single-minded goal of reaching the unreached,” Cooper said. “Is that the picture of your church?” he asked the delegates.
Of particular note during the report from the church's South American region was the role of media–specifically web evangelism–in reaching people with the message of Jesus. Referring to what he called “retransmitting hope,” Melchor Ferreyra, the regional secretary for South America, praised the impact of “integrated communication,” or a convergence of all media resources to streamline the presentation of the gospel.
However, Ferreyra asked, “What good do television and radio and Internet do if members don't live the Tell the World philosophy? Tell the World is not just something the church does, but what its members must live.”
Several presenters referred to Hope for Big Cities, a special Tell the World initiative to reach the often secular and materialistic people living in the world's largest population centers–20 major cities of 1 million individuals or more. Church leaders from the Southern Asia-Pacific region reported on concentrated efforts in the city of Bangkok where a 2005 Tell the World goal to establish 14 new churches has nearly been reached, with 10 congregations meeting weekly.
Alberto C. Gulfan, President for the church's Southern Asia-Pacific region, reported that Fourth Quarter Sabbath School mission offerings contributed to outreach activities in Bangladesh, where the influences of prevailing religions and big city values pose particular challenges to the church.
Another difficult area, noted by Krause, is Sydney, Australia, where until recently, an Adventist presence was limited to small suburban gatherings. All that is changing with the launch of new initiatives such as “Fountain in the City,” a ministry hub in downtown Sydney that has already generated 6 baptisms, with 11 more planned for next month.
With all the talk of baptisms, Krause cautioned the delegates not to forget people in the midst of numbers. “Let's not think of statistics, but of men and women, boys and girls, whose lives are being changed for eternity,” he said.
In addition to the emphasis on big cities and other unreached areas, Tell the World presenters zeroed in on the impact and importance of small groups and one-on-one lay witnessing as a vital means of meeting Tell the World goals. President of the church's South Pacific region, Laurie J. Evans, noted that nearly 200 individuals were baptized on the small island of Caledonia in response to small groups, with similar results in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Tied to the work of small groups is the spiritual development of new members. Delegates agreed that ministry should be shaped around the concept of discipleship, and every effort should be made to make disciples of new members.
“When we invite new believers into our churches, we need to nurture them, keep them active, get them involved, rather than just baptizing them and leaving them by themselves,” said Orville Parchment, special assistant to president of the world church, in a previous interview with ANN. By stepping up efforts to make members into disciples, church leaders hope to stem a troubling trend that sees some members becoming disillusioned and falling from church records.
Key to this goal is keeping church members involved in community outreach. As one such example, Jeffery Mbwana, president of the church's East Central Africa region, said, “a compassionate Christian response” is needed to counter the HIV/AIDS epidemic currently riddling Africa. “Every church must be a support center for the infected,” Mbwana added.
Emphasizing the concept of consistent personal involvement that characterized so many of the Tell the World presentations, world church Women's Ministries department associate director Raquel Arrais reported that the efforts of women around the world resulted in over 130,000 baptisms last year and that women are “ready, eager, and more than willing to do God's work as [they] touch hearts and tell the world.”
“Without prayer, personal involvement, and our tithes and offerings, there can be no Tell the World,” recapped Krause. “Millions still live in fear without knowledge of Christ, and I want to enlist your help today,” he continued, urging the delegates to return home to their congregations and “remind them not only about prayer and Bible study, but also about the direct link between our work and their financial support.”
In concluding remarks, Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the world church, tagged Krause's appeal with one of his own. “Our priority is mission, and we, as delegates, set aside the most important and productive time to focus on missions. It's important that our people know this. Tell the World is the marching order for our church; it is what gives meaning to everything else.” Paulsen then called for delegates to pray together for Tell the World.
“We are praying leaders, dependent upon God, and our mission can only be accomplished through a re-consecration of ourselves and our mission to God through prayer,” he concluded.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Adventist News Network.
